iBeacons Deployed to 254 Apple Store Locations

With iOS 7, Apple quietly introduced a new feature called iBeacon, which takes advantage of Bluetooth wireless signals to keep track of your location. The whole idea is to allow you to more easily find your way around areas where GPS doesn’t really work well. So, you might use iBeacon to find your seat in a baseball stadium equipped with iBeacon transmitters or, in a retail store, find exactly what you’re looking for. And it’s no coincidence that 254 of Apple’s retail store locations are now using iBeacons.

As earlier rumors suggested, the iBeacon transmitters inside Apple Store locations work directly with the Apple Store iOS application. As you move around the store, you’ll get more information about the products that you’re near. If you’re near an iPad display, for example, you might get information on iPad reviews. The iBeacons can also be used for in-store notifications, like information on accessories, daily store news or when your order is ready for pickup.

The iBeacon feature is automatically being added to the Apple Store application on the back-end 9to5Mac said, and you’ll also need to agree to be tracked and will have to keep Bluetooth on in order for it to work.